Friday, September 23, 2011

Well. Not having the time or presence of mind to blog for weeks makes for an impressive, if somewhat cheaty, FO Friday post. (Totally not worth it, though. I miss sharing projects and stuff with you guys!!)

The whole Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup thing is doing amazing things for my productivity, however. The photo above---well, the yarn parts anyway--- was my homework for Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where I did a little yarn-dyeing with Kool-Aid. (Awesome. Must try again soon. I'm also thinking of putting some in my hair. I missed that boat in the 90s, I have to make up for it now!)

For Potions, the prompt was deflating draughts, with one option being "deflate your stash of yarn that's been hanging around for six months or more," and I used a lot of tiny, otherwise pretty useless yarn balls that have been around for uh, embarrassingly longer than six months, and made myself a hexagon scarflette. I even crocheted some light cotton yarn into tiny balls for buttons. (Those would be the teal blobs on the top left.)

I used the first two rows of a flower motif that was supposed to be a scarf from some random crochet magazine. This was my first experience actually joining motifs, and I got so excited about the puzzle-piece nature of putting them together that I didn't do the most amazing job actually stitching them in the neatest possible way...next time will be better. This isn't a perfect object by any means---I made it rather too high in the neck, and it folds over onto itself when worn---but it is wearable and cozy-ish, and as someone who rarely makes wearable items, it was kind of exciting.

...but not as exciting as the bear slippers! It got cold (well, to reptilian me) here for a few days, and I couldn't find any of my slippers from last winter and my feet were freezing, so I made a pair. I used this pattern, which is awesome. I modified it a little, but these are still a bit big, so the next pair (I already bought some yarn for them, this is how much I like these slippers) are going to have to get modified even more, which I'm looking forward to (mainly because I'm not making them yet and fitting-and-frogging and fitting-and-frogging...).

I did them in brown because my mama raised me all practical-like in that regard---when we're making something to walk on, we do it in dirt colours!---and halfway through (discouraged, I'll admit, by the relative non-cuteness of slippers in Red Heart Super Saver brown) I decided they would be bear slippers. So they got ears and faces, and they've hardly left my feet since. I think I could get into this whole...making things to wear thing.

But then again, there's nothing like a nice project with a face. I started this dragon (whose full name is Quintus Junius Caramel) at like, 5 AM Tuesday morning, thinking I'd probably frog him and restart. The pattern called for bulky yarn, and I haven't really done any ami in bulky, and I didn't think I'd like it. I was happily wrong, I love how fluffy-squishily this worked up. And somewhere along the line, it became clear that he needed a chef's hat and apron. I don't really remember why, but they were fun to make! I also made the mat he's standing on from this awesome potholder pattern. I'd never worked anything constructed like this before, where you're working in a spiral but switching colours and letting the colours sort of...chase themselves around to create the spiral rows, and it was fascinating.

And, of course, at least one owl. Meet Lucy (named for Lucy Westenra in Dracula), the vampire owl. She didn't turn out exactly as I envisioned, but I sort of like her anyway. Even if I broke her first blood-smeared beak and had to make another one and it held me up for days...

I think Lucy is actually getting purchased, even, which is beyond cool, and probably necessitates the making of Vampire Owl 2.0, which will give me a chance to try different colours and maybe the eye-circles design instead of the solid-face-piece design, which I think might be a better vampy look?

Friday, September 2, 2011

This stuff! I'm happy to say that Sprout the Squid seems to approve of my star-shaped dishcloth. You always want to please your squid.

I haven't got time for a quality post (or quality photos, ugh) today, but I did want to get these things up to share, and I'm looking forward to catching up with all of your Friday posts tonight or tomorrow. :D

I used this pattern, and loved how quickly and enjoyably it worked up.

I also made a square cloth, using a block from this book. I love the look of mitred squares, but hadn't tried one yet. The book has multiple styles/methods of them, so there may be more on the way...

This was one of those instances where the yarns matched a little too well, I think. This is three colours (yellow, a variegated one, and red) of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton (which somehow seems softer/easier to work with to me than Sugar and Cream, but that may be a figment of my imagination...), and they're so well-matched that the striping effect of the square got a little lost. Next time, more contrast in my colours.

I also whipped up one of the ever-popular Olivia's Butterfly hats, a pattern I've been wanting to make since I saw it on an FO Friday a million years ago. This owl was nice enough to model it for me (it's way too small for my giant skull).

Definitely more hats-and-cloths on the way before I box it all up to send to the Pine Ridge Reservation later this month. :)